The present invention relates generally to the technical field of electronic communication over a computer network and, more particularly, the present invention relates to multi-lingual electronic communication in the form of parallel electronic discussion groups.
In the field of the present invention there are basically two types of electronic network communication in use today: electronic mail and bulletin board systems. Electronic mail is a way of sending messages to another computer user (possibly located at a remote site) through the use of a modem. Electronic mail is generally used to send messages to other computer users about any subject. A bulletin board system (BBS) may be run from a computer that uses a special program to allow other computers to call it, by use of a modem, ordinarily over standard telephone lines. A BBS acts as a storage facility, where people calling from their computers can post or receive messages and send or receive program files. A BBS is usually subdivided by topics so that users with similar interests can send information to other users of similar interests. These related groups of messages are referred to as topics, message areas, Forum.RTM. (a registered trademark of CompuServe Incorporated) or conferences (i.e. a particular BBS may contain numerous related groups of messages such as on the subjects of travel, sports, stamp collecting, etc. . . . ).
BBSs are distinguishable from electronic mail in that BBSs are used for posting messages of a particular group of computer users who have similar interests but these posted messages are not ordinarily addressed to any particular user. BBSs are also used by some computer users who wish to just read posted messages and other information, without having to post a reply message. For example, a person in Columbus, Ohio, who is preparing for a vacation, may access a BBS on travel, through his home computer, and post a message asking for the best places to go skiing in the United States. Other network users with an interest in travel may read the message from the person from Columbus, and then reply with their opinion about where the best place is for skiing. There are thousands of BBSs available to computer network users on a wide variety of subject areas.
As the number of computer networks being accessed by international users increases, the number of online discussion groups for users with similar interests, from different countries, also increases. For example, a person in France may access a discussion group on international law, to obtain information about trade laws. Assuming that the French person is only familiar with the French language, the French person cannot send a message that would be understood by a German speaking user or an English speaking user. Thus, the need arises for an electronic discussion group which can be utilized by foreign language speaking users.
Language translation software is currently available, however, to Applicants' knowledge, it has only been used for purposes of electronic mail, in online services environments, where the identity and language of the person receiving the message is known. For example, if a French person wants to send a message to Bob Smith, who is American, the French person can send the message through a French to English machine translator on the network. However, there is currently no successful implementation of language translation software in an environment such as an electronic public discussion group which may have an unknown group of users of different languages. For example, if a French speaking person wants to access a travel discussion group, run from a BBS in New York, and inquire into the best places for mountain climbing in the world; currently, the French person can translate his message to the discussion group in only one other language (e.g. English). Thus, only people who can read English or French would understand and be able to reply to the message. A person in Japan, who does not have command of the English language and has valuable information relating to mountain climbing in Japan, will not understand the message posted in English and will not be able to respond to the inquiry. Additionally, if the French person cannot read English, he will not understand replies posted to the discussion group in English.
The present invention is a system of parallel discussion groups operated in conjunction with a message collection/posting software program, data filter software program, and a machine translation software program. The present invention comprises a number of discussion groups running in "parallel"; one group for each language being used in the discussion groups. The individual discussion groups all contain the same information, in the same order; the only difference being that each parallel discussion group is written in a different language.
In the present invention, once a user logs onto a particular parallel discussion group he or she may then choose his or her language preference. If the user's language preference is set to French, the French version of the discussion group will be accessed. Messages posted to a discussion group will be periodically collected, translated to the other languages, and then posted to those respective target language discussion groups. The collection and posting of the messages will be accomplished by the Message Collection/Posting Software which forms a part of the present invention. The new messages which are collected on a periodic basis are sent to a commercially available Machine Translation (MT) software for translation. Messages are batch processed automatically at the network site and without human intervention. The translation takes place at a remote site so user actions are minimized. Users simply specify a language preference that is communicated to the network in order to take advantage of the present invention.
Before the input text is actually submitted to the MT software, the input text is passed through a filter software program which preprocesses the data before it is submitted to the MT software. The filter identifies and marks strings which are best left untranslated by the MT software, such as personal names, company product names, file and path names, commands, samples of source code, and the like. By marking these strings, the filter notifies the MT software to leave those strings untranslated. These strings are then linked to a preceding "hookword". Hookwords are automatically inserted then deleted in post-processing and are contained in dictionaries with a part-of-speech and other grammatical features to effect rearrangement of the word in the target language. Once the translation process is complete, the translations are collected and posted, by the Message Collection/Posting Software, to the target language discussion groups at the same location within the message structure as the original version of the message. The pre-processing, translation, and post-processing functions are all performed automatically in accordance with a batch process that executes on a periodic basis at the network site.
Thus, some of the messages on a French version of a discussion group will have been originally written in French whereas many will be translations of messages which were originally written in a different language. Each of the messages translated from another language version of the parallel discussion group may contain both the translated message and the original language text. For example, a message originally written in the English version of the discussion group and translated to the French version may be shown on screen with the original English text in addition to the French translation.
The primary object of the invention is to create a structure and process to enable discussion group users, of different languages, to communicate with one another. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, this object is accomplished through an automatic batch process that executes at a remote site. No human intervention is required for the pre-processing, translation, or post-processing functions. Additionally, users simply specify a language preference to realize the benefits and advantages of the present invention. Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent when viewed in light of the following drawings and detailed description.